Atlanta DA defends qualifications of outside attorney she hired for Trump case

Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, pushed back Sunday against criticism and questions about her sentencing that followed a lawsuit accusing her of having a relationship with the outside attorney she hired to investigate the racketeering case. to lead. against former President Donald J. Trump.

Ms. Willis emerged after a silence of nearly a week to address the congregation at Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the oldest black churches in Atlanta, which had invited her to be the keynote speaker for a service dedicated to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She did not address allegations that she had a relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired in 2021 and who has earned more than $650,000 in his job to date.

Instead, she said Mr Wade had “impeccable credentials” for the role and suggested the allegations were just the latest to make her job difficult to bear.

Ms. Willis, 52, said she was “as flawed as they come,” but that she was also subjected to an extra level of scrutiny and even personal danger as a black woman in such a high-profile role, who is perhaps the most powerful figure in the Republican Party.

“Wait a minute, God,” Ms. Willis said as she shared a prayer this week in which she reminded God that the job of district attorney, to which she was elected as a Democrat in 2020, came with more fear and hardship than she had done. expected. “You didn't tell me as a woman of color that it didn't matter what I did – my motive, my talent, my abilities and my character would be under constant attack.”

Mr. Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in August on racketeering and other state charges for what Ms. Willis' office described as a multi-pronged effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Four of the defendants have pleaded guilty and promised to cooperate with prosecutors.

The claim that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade are in a relationship has raised questions about Mr. Wade's qualifications, as well as her reasons for hiring him. Before his current role, Mr. Wade had never presided over a high-profile criminal case and had worked largely as a suburban attorney and a municipal judge.

Still, Ms. Willis defended hiring Mr. Wade, who is black, arguing that questions about his qualifications and her decision to involve him were rooted in racism. She said that Mr. Wade had been hired in the past by a Republican in another Georgia county, and that neither the official nor Mr. Wade had faced similar opposition at the time.

“I have appointed three special counsels, as is my right to do. I paid them all the same hourly rate,” Ms. Willis said. “They only attacked one.”

She noted that the other two outside attorneys she hired to help with the Trump case are a white woman and a white man, adding that “all three of these special counsel are superstars.”

“But I just ask,” she continued, “God, why is it that some will never see a black man as qualified in terms of his achievements?”